Structure and magnetic properties of a family of two-leg spin ladder compounds Ba2RE2Ge4O13 (RE = Pr, Nd, and Gd-Ho) with strong rung interaction

Spin ladders represent a special type of low-dimensional magnets allowing the study of dimensional crossover from one-dimensional spin chain to two-dimensional square-lattice spin systems, and different magnetic ground states can emerge in such system depending on the exchange interaction parameters of rungs and legs of the ladder. Even intensive investigations have been performed on the 3d transition-metal-based spin ladder compounds, but the materials constructed by the rare-earth ions are still rare. Herein, we report a family of RE-based spin ladder compounds Ba2RE2Ge4O13 (RE=Pr,Nd,Gd-Ho) crystallized into the monoclinic structure with the space group C2/c. The structural analysis reveals that the RE ions form structurally a two-leg spin ladder motif, which are bridged through the RE-O-RE pathways and RE-O-Ge-O-RE routes along the rung and leg directions, respectively. Moreover, the rung distance within the RE2O12 dimer is much shorter than the leg distance, suggesting Ba2RE2Ge4O13 to be a strong-rung spin ladder system. All the synthesized Ba2RE2Ge4O13 (RE=Pr,Nd,Gd-Ho) compounds exhibit the dominant antiferromagnetic interactions and absence of magnetic order down to 1.8K. Among the family members, Ba2Dy2Ge4O13 can be described by Jeff=1/2 Kramers doublet states, which exhibits the coexistence of short-range spin correlations maximized at Tsr~2.4K and long-range AFM order at TN=0.81K indicated by the low temperature specific heat data. The short-range spin correlation is ascribed to the development of rung exchange interactions of Dy2O12 dimers and the long-rang AFM order is related to the enhanced leg-or inter-laddder couplings at reduced temperatures. This family of Ba2RE2Ge4O13 compounds thereby provide a rare platform to investigate the novel spin ladder physics with spin-orbit entangled Jeff=1/2 moments beyond the 3d TM-based counterparts.